{"id":11821,"date":"2017-11-14T03:30:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T08:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=11821"},"modified":"2017-11-14T03:30:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T08:30:57","slug":"brick-honors-councilwoman-who-beat-the-odds-and-is-giving-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2017\/11\/brick-honors-councilwoman-who-beat-the-odds-and-is-giving-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Honors Councilwoman Who Beat The Odds And is Giving Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Councilwoman<\/a>

Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero is joined by family and colleagues, Nov. 13, 2017. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Brick Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero was told earlier this year that she had just a 30 percent chance of beating a rare form of head and neck cancer that developed in her oral cavity, but after a grueling recovery period there is one thing on her mind these days: helping others.<\/p>\n

Pontoriero, 43, sustained burns across her body from chemotherapy treatment and was also told she would have just a 10 percent chance of ever speaking again since most of her tongue was to be cut out during the surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I\u2019d still have my hands, and I\u2019m Italian, so I could make my way through that,\u201d she joked Tuesday night, as she was honored for receiving the\u00a0Patient Courage Award by the New Jersey Mayors\u2019 Committee on Life Sciences.<\/p>\n

The organization honored Pontoriero not just for her brave fight against cancer, but for her dedication \u2013 even through a painful and grueling recovery period \u2013 to her community and helping others. She is now continuing to re-learn how to speak since her tongue was replaced by skin from her arm in a \u201cradical\u201d procedure she received during the surgery to remove the cancer. Even during the worst moments of the process, Pontoriero tried her best to make every council meeting, and publicly spoke about her plans to form a support system in town for others engaged in the same fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I looked around at Sloan-Kettering, and saw all the people sitting there without someone being there to hold their hand, my heart broke for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pontoriero, a long-time advocate for abused children and the elderly, is moving forward developing plans for her cancer support group in town, and said she is dedicating her life to the cause.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank everyone in my church, St. Dominic\u2019s, who prayed for me and continue to pray for me,\u201d she said Tuesday, as she was joined at the council meeting by a room filled with family members, including her wife, Crystal, and the children they adopted after providing a home as foster parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy survival was a miracle from God,\u201d Pontoriero said. \u201cI thank you each and every day for the life that I will now devote to people who don\u2019t have anyone to hold their hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pontoriero, who runs a law office in Brick with her sister, was the top vote-getter in last week\u2019s council election, where she easily won a second term. That term will be dedicated to developing the programs she hopes to see in place soon to help those battling cancer in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s come together, like we always do in our town, to help the people who need help,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Brick Mayor John Ducey declared this coming Friday to be \u201cCouncilwoman Marianna Pontoriero Day\u201d in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fight was not just about cancer, it was about continuing to be strong for her family, as well as her community,\u201d he said, calling his colleague a \u201ctrue force of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brick Councilwoman Marianna Pontoriero was told earlier this year that she had just a 30 percent chance of beating a rare form of head and neck cancer that developed in her oral cavity, but after a grueling recovery period there is one thing on her mind these days: helping others. Pontoriero, 43, sustained burns across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[24,2795,2794,3117],"class_list":["post-11821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","category-government","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-head-and-neck-cancer","tag-marianna-pontoriero","tag-patient-courage-award"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_1657-e1510648105436.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-34F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}